


Bucket Brain

by SpaceTravels



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 07:53:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10782660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceTravels/pseuds/SpaceTravels
Summary: Inspired by the fan-art of hotside, which is at once hot, sexy, adorable, and funny, this ficlet tries to capture that spirit.  We catch up with Rey in her bucket bath, after she returned to Jakku following a falling out with Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To.  But wherever Rey goes, Kylo Ren is sure to follow...





	Bucket Brain

     Rey sat in her small tub, scrubbing her arms with a rough sponge and a bar of flowery-smelling soap she had taken from the Resistance base - just one item of an entire pallet of things she had taken before she left there - and proof that her scavenger ways would always be a part of her no matter how her circumstances changed.  She raised a leg from the sand, pointing her toes to the sky and turned her sponge's attention there, dismayed to find that no matter how hard she scrubbed, the grime never seemed to stop coming.  But at least she would smell good. 

     A familiar feeling suddenly came over her and she paused in her scrubbing, listening to her surroundings carefully.  Only the gentlest of breezes and silence returned. Her eyes darted down to her staff for reassurance, and there it lay in the sand nearby.  She had learned the hard way to always keep her weapon no more than an arm’s length away.  Satisfied that everything remained still, she shrugged and began her labours again for another few moments before that feeling flared even more deeply inside her.  Rey now caught sight of a long shadow falling across the sand from slightly behind and froze.  Her lack of action was mirrored by her visitor - as neither of them seemed even to breathe for an exceptionally long time.   

     "What are you doing?" came the modulated voice eventually. 

     Rey gave an exasperated sigh. "What does it look like I am doing?"  she snapped, trying to determine how she should, firstly, extricate herself from the tub with some semblance of dignity, and secondly, deal with Kylo Ren. 

     He paused again for a long time.  "You're naked." 

     Rey now shot him an indignant look.  “Yes, well that's how we bathe here on this backwater planet.  In the nude.  You should try it sometime,”  she replied haughtily, making a point of scanning the absolutely ridiculous amount of black clothing he choose to wear on the desert planet. 

     "Alright then,” he drew out, his tone suggesting that he was struggling to hold back a retort.  “How about I just step over to the side here while you get yourself dressed, and then we can discuss business?”  

     “I have no business with you."

     A modulated sigh of annoyance.  "Scavenger, your defiance is tiring.  You know and I know that your life will waste away if you remain here.  Why did you leave Luke?"

     Rey glanced at him a moment before turning to look out over the dunes framed by the warmish glow of the late afternoon sun.  He had asked the question as if he didn’t know the answer, as if he hadn’t been inside her mind for all those months - and she inside of his.

     "You know what Kylo, Ren, Darth Ben, whatever you are calling yourself now?  I _never_ asked for any of this.  None of it.  I don’t owe anything to the Force.  The Force left me alone on Jakku for all those years.  So I don't owe you, or Luke, or Leia, an explanation, and I certainly don't have to become a Jedi just because I have the Force." She said the last part so quietly it was barely heard but was still surprised to find that he had moved closer to her when she turned around to look at him again.   Rey was certain that he could probably see a lot more of her from his new vantage point, even though she still refused to cower.

     “And don't get any ideas, bucket brain," she said,  pointedly glaring at his helmet,  "That doesn't mean I want to become a Sith either."  

     "If I am a bucket brain, _what does that make you_?"  Kylo Ren asked in his most deadpan voice.  

     Rey glanced down at herself, confronted with the absurdity of how her bare bottom was wedged into the tiny metal bucket of water.  A small bubble of sound escaped her throat, followed by a cascade of her own hysterical laughter.  She giggled uncontrollably until tears were running down her cheeks - a release from all the emotions that had been stopped up inside of her during the past few months.  When she was finally able to breathe again, Rey looked over at her adversary.  Although she could sense his amusement, she felt him struggling to push it away, as if it were an overwhelming distraction.  Was he even smiling under the mask, she wondered?  Her thoughts sobered her quickly.

     He tilted his head to the side, now crouching beside her just a few feet away.  "I am not a Sith, nor do I have plans of becoming one, and I don't intend to turn you into one either."  

     "So why are you here then?"

     "Can you please just get dressed?  This is the most ridiculous conversation I have ever had,”  his tone betraying an intense exasperation and…something else.  Rey tried to follow that thread as she reached for it through their bond, but it was abruptly yanked when just out of her grasp. 

     “And you're a little overdressed, aren't you?” she retorted.  "Can you please just take off that kriffing helmet?"  

     His shoulders sagged for a moment as he contemplated her.  The picture she made was comical, with her lithe limbs tumbling out over the edges of the too small tub, framed by the orange glow of the setting sun.  He reached for the release mechanism, pulling his mask off. 

     Rey didn't say anything for a long time as her eyes took in everything.  His dark hair settled around his face in shining waves just as she remembered, contrasting against the striking paleness of his skin.  In fact, he looked mostly like what she recalled, though even stronger perhaps in build, than when they had duelled on Starkiller Base.  But that in itself wasn’t a surprise.  Hadn’t she witnessed herself the brutality of Snoke’s trainings?  How a body had only two choices - either get stronger or perish?   Her eyes finally dared to move over the line of his scar, which although it had healed, still bisected his handsome features.  A grim thought - that both she and Snoke had left their marks on the young man standing there - flitted past her mind. Rey finally raised her eyes to meet his, and felt lost for a moment in the deep pain and sadness she saw reflected in their depths, looking as if they belonged to those of a beaten down old man.  But then, that was not a surprise to see either.  Rey brought up her hand to rub her eyes tiredly and then trace the imaginary line of the scar upon her own face. 

     "A Jedi wouldn't have done that,”  she whispered, unable to fight the tears.  His pain was her pain - there was no escaping the fact any longer.  For months now, they had shared every waking moment with each other even though they were physically lightyears apart…and yet there were still so many things that remained unacknowledged between them. She nodded her head towards his face, “I took it out on you because…you destroyed everything that I ever wanted to have - a…a family, and people to care about me, to care if I came home,”  Rey’s voice quivered with accusation and anger.  

     Kylo Ren rose again to his imposing height, but turned away and laid a hand on the hull of her AT-AT, as if for support.   His head was bowed and he took his face in his hand.  "You think what I did _weighs on you_?" he asked.  He had finally spoken aloud the guilt-ridden words that Rey had known danced around his consciousness since that day on Starkiller, tormenting his every waking moment.  His words were not angry in the way he usually was, but rather, full of anguish and sorrow.  

     Rey watched him for a few long moments, disturbed to see the truth of the man who had once been so terrifying to her.  Her eyes followed the line of his defeated posture, of a person who had reconciled with a fate that would lead only further into hell.  Something inside of her broke at that moment, that something that had threatened to shatter under the intensity of their connection all those months.  She stepped carefully out of her tub and came silently in behind him, slowly wrapping her arms around his waist.  Kylo Ren’s body went rigid as if he no longer even knew how to receive a comforting embrace.  

     "I don't need your pity."  

     "I'm not offering you pity.  I'm offering you someone to lean on.  I would have given anything for that my entire life.”

     He seemed to stop breathing for a moment as he considered her words.  But they seemed to make some headway nonetheless and a small amount of tension eased out of his stiffened posture as the clamp on their bond let up slightly as well.  They stood together in lengthy silence even as emotions flowed rapidly between them as if in a silent, intimate conversation, all the while Rey continued to embrace him from behind with her cheek resting against the back of his shoulder.  He felt so solid against her, so much like something for her to lean on as well.

     Eventually his gloved hands covered her’s.  "You're still naked, aren't you?"

     "As the day I was born.” 

     The dark knight reached up and pulled his cowl from around his neck and handed it back to her.  “Here. Take this"

     Rey snorted, taking the black mass of fabric and examining its unique waffled texture with her fingertips.  She wound it around her body like a towel before stepping around to the front of Kylo Ren.  "I didn't know that a little nakedness was enough to spook a dark side lord,”  her tone verged on sarcastic but her hazel eyes betrayed a hint of mischief.

     He shook his head, looking away, before his eyes returned to hers.  What Rey saw there caused her to catch her breath - concern, caring,...desire.   “First of all, that’s not just a little bit of nakedness  - …and you are welcome to parade around in the nude, but I am also not immune to the attractions of a beautiful woman.  I am trying to offer you respect in the manner I was raised.”

     Rey shifted and swallowed heavily as his words percolated.  Was he saying what she thought he was saying?  In all those months they had spoken without speaking, she never suspected that he was attracted to her.   She gave him a quizzical look, “Why have you come here?”  

     He took a deep breath again, biting his lip.  "I don't know how to explain it.  Everything changed after that day on Starkiller.  Everything.  And you know that.  Whether I like it or not, you have seen me questioning everything.  But this connection…I just needed to see you.”

     “So the Force made you come here?" she asked skeptically.  

     He was still biting his lip, though his eyes scanned her face and drifted down over the graceful line of her neck and shoulders. 

     “No, not exactly,” he shifted uncomfortably, his cheeks taking a slightest pink tinge.  

      "Not exactly what?"

     "I don't know, ok?  I have spent years trying to fight my feelings for my family, and now, something about you has made me doubt everything I have committed to.  When I couldn’t sense you - I - I - didn’t even stop and think.  I just came here.  Somehow I knew that this is where you would have gone.“  

     Rey stared down at the the sand for a few long moments, as if the uniform grains of it were the most fascinating thing ever.  It was a distraction from a feeling welling up inside of her - a feeling that she just knew would cause her to do something entirely too impulsive.  

     "Thank you,” she whispered finally through trembling lips.  “For coming here…after me.”  

     The look in those expressive eyes was enough to send her over the edge.   Without warning, Rey threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his, in the process dropping her hold on the cowl.  Kylo Ren was taken aback and froze.  Rey pulled away abruptly, the fabric slipping further down to her waist, revealing her sun kissed torso to his gaze.  What had she just done?

     "I - I'm sorry.  I don't know why I -,” she stammered, her cheeks flushing bright red. 

      A gloved hand reached out and caught her arm,  pulling her back towards him.  "No. Please.  Don’t….it’s my fault.  I didn't expect - ,” he said before his he leaned down to capture her mouth again. He kissed her softly, exploring her lips tentatively.  A small sound escaped Rey's throat before she reached up to pull him closer, her fingers coursing through his silky hair, while his own hands finally settled on her bare waist. 

     They pulled apart - just barely - and with great reluctance at that.  The air around them seemed different, even charged. All those months of sharing thoughts had created such an intimacy between them, but this was something else entirely.  This kind of yearning that each felt for the other had come as a surprise.  

     “So, what do we do now?”  Rey finally breathed out.  

      Kylo bit his lip again, shaking his head.  “I don't know.  I hadn't thought that far ahead.  I didn't expect that you would want...anything - to do with me."

      Rey's eyes welled with tears again as she struggled under the weight of his hopelessness.  "And yet you still came here?"

      "What did I really have to lose, Rey?  I just needed to make sure you were okay." 

      "Before?"  she prompted, noting that he in fact did know her name. 

       He sighed, "Before...I do what I need to do, to start to correct things."

      Rey's brows furrowed as she looked at the man she once considered her staunchest adversary, but who was the still the beloved son of Leia Organa and Han Solo.  "What does that mean?"  she asked as she pressed into their bond for answers.  She sensed a new resolve, intermingled with much fear, and resignation.  She suddenly began to shake her head vehemently.

     "You are going to try and take down Snoke."  she whispered, recoiling.  She had seen through his eyes what Snoke was capable of.  

     Kylo Rey's lips pursed into a thin line even as he leaned his forehead against her's.  There was no point in denying it.  

     "You can't do that by yourself.  You will never survive," Rey spoke again.

     "I am not afraid of dying.  Just of failing to kill him before that happens." he said, his voice taking on a determined edge.  A few moments of silence passed as they stood leaning against each other.

    "I can't let you do that - "  

     "You also can't stop me,"  Kylo Ren interrupted.  

      She shook her head, " _I was going to say_ that I can't let you do that on your own.  You will need help.  Mine, and Luke's."  

     "You would stand with me?"  he asked, his tone full of wonder.  Rey caught the torrent of thoughts coming from him - his amazement that she had embraced him in the first instance, and now that she was offering him her help.  

      Rey nodded.  "It will help the Resistance."

      His eyes dropped down to the sand.  "I am not doing it for the Resistance...I want revenge."  When Kylo Ren looked back up at her, Rey was startled by the fierceness in his eyes.  "Everything is a lie, Rey.  All of it."   

     Rey shivered despite the warm breeze.  Seeking revenge was a start down the path of the dark side but she struggled to find the wrong in Kylo Ren's wish for it.  In his place, she would seek the same.  Tentatively, she reached up to stroke the soft curls that brushed against his neck.

     "I understand why you have to destroy him.  I know what he has done to you.  But we are not strong enough to face Snoke by ourselves.  We will need to ask Luke for his help,"  she said softly.

     Kylo Rey's expression gentled as he looked at her again.  "We?" he nearly croaked.  

     Rey gave him a small smile, "We will go to Luke."

     He closed his eyes for a moment as if remembering something painful, "Luke will know my motive is revenge.  That is not the way of the Jedi."

     "I think you'll find Luke is...a little different...than what you remember,"  Rey shifted in the sand, "I think eccentric might be the word."

     "Well he is a fool if he doesn't take the opportunity to rid the galaxy of Snoke once and for all." 

      Rey tentatively reached up to cup his face and calm the hurricane of emotions she felt coming from him, and was mesmerised to see him become visibly disarmed by her tender action.  “Luke will make his choice.  Either he will stand with us, or we will do it ourselves.  I’ll go get dressed now so we can leave,” she spoke softly but firmly.  She turned and managed the few small steps to the entrance of her home before Kylo Ren caught her shoulder, gently pulling her back against him.  He braced himself against the doorway with one arm.  

     “No.  We don't have to leave just yet,"  he spoke thickly, as he turned her face towards his again and sought to seal their plans with a kiss.  

**Author's Note:**

> So Kylo is right - if he is a bucket brain - what does that make Rey? 
> 
> This is a one-shot, and a bit of a distraction from my ongoing fic - Just Another Star Wars Story. If you haven't checked that one out, give it a try!
> 
> And just a gentle reminder that Kudos and comments are the only payment we fic writers receive! Share the wealth! :-)))


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